Plant Shredder/Chipper/Chopper Reviews Sought

Tonight I am worn out from hand shredding the spring peas that finished up today. I can't imagine what it will be like to hand shred my 15 tomato plants. Meanwhile, we have plenty of stuff in the kitchen that could go into compost/self-composting soil but I am tired of chopping it up.

I have looked on the internet for choppers, but mostly they get bad reviews. I can handle difficult assembly (one main complaint) but I want something that actually works (the other main complaint).

I need something that can handle melon rinds (lots of them) on the heavy side, and plant leaves and debris on the light side. I would also like to shred some paper from time to time to add to the mix.

My budget here is hopefully less than $200, definitely less than $300.

AVOID the Yard Machines 14 Amp Electric Chipper/Shredder #24A-404A900 or any similar product.

I bought one for the same reason you want one - to shred coarse stuff for my compost pile.

Assembly was difficult, primarily due to the instructions being written in some language that believed it was English but was not. However, once assembled, the unit would not work.

According to their customer service dept, the defect in mine is very common. The [axle?] on which the chopping blades pivot does not spin freely enough for the electric motor to get it moving. The motor starts, then dies when it can't get the blades moving.

They suggested WD40, but it still wouldn't start even though the blades did move more freely.

I have also heard that the blades get dull very quickly, but I wouldn't know, as I never managed to chop anything.



This message was edited Jun 3, 2008 4:09 PM

Thanks LT.

This is pretty much what the other online reviewers said.

This seems like a pretty good service opportunity for an entrepreneur. Build us a machine that will shred and chop our wet garbage to prepare for composting. Just an upside down lawnmower, right?

PLEASE???????

I need something that can handle melon rinds (lots of them) on the heavy side, and plant leaves and debris on the light side. I would also like to shred some paper from time to time to add to the mix.

I don't think it will work on melon rinds but for plant debris a quick solution is to run over it with your lawn mower if you have one. That's what I'm doing to chop some hay up. While I have a copper I haven't run it in years and don't have the patients right know to mess with one more small engine this spring.

A lot of the stuff I have is viney, and it just winds around the blades of the mower. Likewise with my Mantis tiller.


What I'd REALLY like is a shredder and also a big-ass chipper for the branches we're always trimming and pruning around here. I've concluded that one machine just won't handle both jobs.

LTilton:

Seems to me like the chipper/chopper is a once a year job and that can be rented from a tool rental company.

The shredders currently on the market just don't cut it. I don't have a mower at all (when I bought the house, it sort of came with lawn care attached), but I am thinking of buying a mulching mower just to clean up garden debris. Maybe I could ask the lawn guys to do it, but I would have to brush up on my Spanish.

I would still have to hand carve the melon rinds, and I am not sure that a mulching mower will handle banana peels, mango skins, etc.

We've got chippable wood all year long. It's such a pain having to drag it out, in properly-tied bundles no more than 5 ft long, to the trash collection.

Well a chipper seems to be at least a $1K proposition from what I have seen. You must not have any place to pile it up?

I still think if a mulching mower can be had for $200, then a serviceable shredder/chopper should be available for the same price. It's the same technology and virtually the same buildout.

All good information - thanks. I am looking for a shredder/chopper to rent in the Santa Monica, CA area. We trimmed two trees yesterday, and want to turn them into mulch for our garden. It seems ridiculous to haul away this stuff, and then to pay for and haul in mulch! So far, I've not found anyone that rents a machine. If anyone has a recommendation for where to rent a machine, and/or a good, not too expensive company that will come out and do it for us, please let me know! Thanks very much.

anneh2008, have you tried the big box hardware stores. They have rental places inside the store.

I've been looking at this one for a while over at Gardeners' Supply. Is it the same as the one others are having such bad luck with?

http://www.gardeners.com/Electric%20Garden%20Chipper/GardeningTools_PowerTools,35-272,default,cp.html

Yep - that's the very one.

AVOID

Well, rats! Although it did rather edge close to the "too good to be true" category.

Oh, well, I'm glad to hear from others that it's got problems rather than learning the hard way myself.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with it!

I have a leaf shredder that can also handle dry ornamental grasses and small twigs. I bought it from Gardeners Supply (it isn't the same one shown above in the link). It has a big hopper and it's red. It took me a while to figure out how much and what stuff I could throw in there without the motor cutting out and having to grope around for the reset button. It's basically like a big string trimmer that uses two lengths of the plastic 'string' threaded through a central shaft. I've used it quite heavily for three years and it's still going strong.

It does not function as a wood chipper, though.

Goldenberry, do you remember how much you paid for it?

I've seen that one, but it hasn't been shown for sale anywhere here lately.

I think I've seen something similar at Sears.

This one?

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_07177639000P?vName=Lawn+%26+Garden&cName=Handheld+Power&sName=Chippers+%26+Shredders&keyword=shredder

Amazon has it, and also this one from the same mfgr

http://www.amazon.com/Flowtron-Leaf-Eater-Electric-Leaf-Shredder/dp/B00006XMTL/ref=pd_cp_hi_1?pf_rd_p=413863601&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00006XMTM&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=02VD127KNFBEDSG8BRN0

LTilton, that's the one. I'll have to put it on my wish list. LOL!!!

Not on mine, not after reading those reviews.

Oh, I didn't have time to read the reviews earlier.

Yes, seems quite lousy now. LOL!!!

I'm wondering what would happen if I just stuck the weed wacker into the garbage can full of leaves and let it rip.

It would be a big mess I'm sure. I've read on other threads where people have done it that way.

Dean, the one I have is made by Flowtron. It looks exactly like the one on the Sears website.

I'm glad I didn't read any reviews before I bought mine. ;) As I mentioned, it did require a learning curve to figure out what it could handle, how much, how fine to shred etc. And I still have to reset it sometimes when the motor encounters a branch that's too large and switches itself off. I also recall a lot of swearing while assembling it, LOL.

BUT---it has enabled me to make wonderful shredded leaf mulch for my garden beds in the fall, and to make compost faster by shredding stuff before it goes into the pile. I can reduce a huge pile of leaves to a basket of shredded ones in 15 minutes. I found a couple of big green plastic flat-bottomed bags with handles on clearance at Ace Hardware, big enough to set the whole shredder inside, which not only contains the mess but makes it easy to haul a load of shredded leaves to their destination. To me, it has been worth the initial hassles.

However, I'm not wedded to the thing, and if anyone comes up with a better device, I'll be glad to give it a try!

Thanks Goldenberry.